Sunday, June 19, 2022, 9:00pm, Proxy SF
It’s rather difficult to classify Attack, Decay, Release. It’s non-narrative, for the most part, but with some loose threads of narrative joining parts of the movie, but I really wouldn’t describe it as having a plot, per se. The format is unusual, as well; large portions of the film have three different images on portions of the screen (or, as presented at its premiere screening, on three separate screens). Most of the film has no spoken dialogue, although there are some bits of silent-film style words on the screen. The audio is mostly a musical score, which was mostly unimpressive, with some annoyingly repetitive bits that repeated annoyingly, causing me to be annoyed with the repetition.
However, it’s also a film experience unlike any other I’ve seen, with some undeniably interesting bits. It’s also one of the few films where, for most of the run time, someone talking, or even getting up and dancing, doesn’t distract from the film. Much of the video was found footage from the archives, some of it dating to the early days of cinema, but also including “informational” films from World War II and the decade or two after. Of all the films I’ve seen at Frameline that I would consider “experimental,” it’s definitely one of the best, but that’s an exceedingly low bar. If you go into it with an open mind, looking for a new experience, it’s worth seeing, although I doubt many will want to see it twice. Recommended.
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